PreSonus Mixers Get Smaart with Leading Sound-System Analysis Tools

PreSonus has announced it has begun incorporating Rational Acoustics’ highly regarded Smaart Measurement Technology directly into the software used to control its StudioLive digital mixers.

Rational Acoustics Smaart Spectra

PreSonus’ Virtual StudioLive™ (VSL) remote-control/editor/librarian software will now incorporate Smaart Spectra™ and Smaart Locator™, powerful tools for sound-system analysis and optimization, as part of PreSonus Universal Control 1.6, expected to be available later this spring.

Smaart is not a single technology but an evolved collection of audio measurement tools and techniques. If you’re a live sound engineer or sound contractor, you’re already aware of Smaart’s reputation as the gold standard of room/sound-system analysis.

Using Smaart technology, users can tap into the power of the StudioLive mixer’s EQ to improve the sound of their P.A. system. With Smaart-enhanced VSL, users can view the spectral content of their mix in real time, and easily make changes. Clicking on the Graphic Equalizer button in Universal Control 1.6, Smaart Spectra’s Real Time Analyzer activates Spectrograph’s algorithms, displaying the spectral content of whatever is routed though a particular graphic EQ. Users can activate a Real Time Analyzer, much like the plug-in used in PreSonus’ Studio One 2.

Even better is the Smaart Spectra Spectrograph display itself, which can help to precisely identify nasty feedback frequencies, enabling even less experienced users to easily tune their P.A. speakers to the room. Smaart Spectra graphs a continuous series of spectrum measurements, showing frequency on one axis, time on another, and level indicated by colors – making it particularly useful for quickly identifying feedback frequencies, which can be easily addressed using StudioLive GEQs.

“This is just the start of a beautiful relationship – PreSonus products are about to get a lot Smaarter,” says PreSonus Chief Technology Officer Bob Tudor. “This is the real thing, trusted by acousticians and live-sound engineers the world over. We’re thrilled to be incorporating Smaart Spectra and Smaart Locator into Virtual StudioLive.”